


A Hail Mary

by Ajisai



Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Monster of the Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-12
Updated: 2015-01-12
Packaged: 2018-03-07 06:18:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3164432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ajisai/pseuds/Ajisai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Nick Hawley finds himself and Ichabod Crane trapped and at the mercy of a dangerous monster, he's got to use all his knowledge and tricks to escape... if he can.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Hail Mary

Hawley opened his eyes and immediately regretted it. He was lying on a hardwood floor, in a room he didn’t recognize, and his head throbbed in pain. Gingerly, he brought one hand to his temple to shield his eyes from the light, only to pull it away as it came into contact with something sticky and found it was covered with blood. Panic threatened to set in, but he closed his eyes again and concentrated on breathing slowly. _I’ve been in worse places. This looks bad, but I’ll get through it, as long as—_

“Mr. Hawley, you are awake.” The voice was familiar, and Hawley forced himself to open his eyes again, to see Ichabod Crane sitting next to him, blinking owlishly.

“Well, at least Mr. Darcy is here to keep me company,” Hawley allowed himself to snark, slowly sitting up, gratified that the room didn’t spin around him.

“Who is—oh, never mind.” Crane was trying to push the annoyance out of his voice, but he didn’t quite succeed. “Are you capable of standing up? Did you see the thing that took us?”

Hawley coughed, testing his weight on one leg, and then the other. “No. I was leaving the bar, heading to my car when I got jumped. Whoever or whatever it was, it had a hell of a karate chop.” He mimed the action and nearly lost his balance.

“Perhaps you shouldn’t attempt one at this particular juncture.” Crane held out a hand and Hawley unwillingly took it, deciding after a moment that sitting down was preferable to standing after all. “I’m afraid I didn’t see it, either. One moment, I was walking to meet Miss Mills at the station, and the next, I awoke here.”

“Are there any weapons we can use?” Hawley asked, or at least he formed the words in his mind, but they came out garbled, slurred. Shit, he thought, this is really bad.

Crane frowned. “I’m not sure, but I believe you’re interested in weaponry. Unfortunately, I’ve already checked, and the room is empty, but for ourselves.”

Just then, the lights went out. Hawley looked where Crane had been, worried that the darkness was a trick of his mind, but from the way Crane was looking around in confusion, it wasn’t that, not at all. Darkness was filling the room, and it was accompanied by a pronounced rustling, shivering sound that was most definitely not human. Hawley’s panic rose again. He’d heard that sound before, once, a long time ago, and his reptile brain, the part that he’d mostly bludgeoned into silence with bravado and beer over the years, was lighting up and demanding that he leave the room, preferably now, or five minutes ago. As the darkness began to coalesce in something vaguely resembling a human form in the center of the room in front of them, Hawley grabbed Crane’s arm, hoping that his speech wouldn’t be slurred this time. “Darcy, I’ve got a Hail Mary!”

“A what? And stop calling me—”

The shape in front of them had gained teeth, far too many of them. Fumbling in the hidden pocket of his leather jacket with his free hand, he tried again, more desperate than before. “Crane, just listen to me. Whatever you do, don’t look into its eyes, and don’t listen to anything it says. It’s lying. I’ve got something that can buy us some time, but I need you to break us out of the room.”

Crane paused for a quick moment and then he nodded, focused. “I understand. I shall do my best.”

Hawley’s fingers closed around the ring he was looking for, its metal comfortingly solid. “Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

“Now!” Crane sprinted away and Hawley was alone. The creature was swiveling, trying to figure out which one of them to pay attention to, and Hawley ignored the voices of panic in his brain as he called, “Hey, Jaws! Over here!”

The darkness turned its head, teeth bared and eyes—too many of those, too—narrowing. It hissed again, but this time there was a word at the center of the hissing sound: “Nick.”

“Yeah, nice to see you again, too, Ugly. Come over here and we’ll talk. Yeah, that’s right.”

The darkness below the creature was spreading, and it moved across the room like ink spreading in water. He flinched as the ink touched his foot, ran up his leg. The voice was becoming more distinct, and louder. “Nick. I’ve been looking for you.”

“Tell me about that,” he said, gripping the ring in his hand, counting back to the moment when he could use it.

“You left our last meeting too early. We weren’t finished then. You owe me your heart, and your lungs, and I’ll take those, with interest. I’ve been looking for you for so long. No one steals from me and lives to tell the tale. Look at me.”

“No,” he whispered.

“Look. At. Me.” The voice was so loud now that there was nothing else in his ears, nothing else to think about it. Unwillingly, he opened his eyes to find that the inky darkness had blanketed everything. Eyes that were approximations of a human’s regarded him angrily. “Your blood is a good start. The rest I’ll take from you piece by piece.”

He screwed his eyes shut again, hoping that Crane had had some luck with the door, holding the ring out of in front of him as he barked out the invocation, “ _Lumen_!” For a split second nothing happened, but then there was a flare of light, dazzling and beautiful. Around him, the darkness began to boil. _It worked; the Hail Mary worked_ , he thought, _grateful and dizzy_.

A cacophony of sounds erupted: there was the splintering of wood, a crash like something heavy. Voices that were dimly familiar echoed for a split second before the creature dug its claws into his arms and shrieked, the sound sending a wave of nausea through his body. Then it was gone, and Jenny was there instead, concern written across her face as she spoke, “Hawley? Hang on. You’re safe now. We banished that thing.”

Somewhere over her shoulder, his gaze met Crane’s. Abbie was standing next to him, and she smiled. Seeing that they were all right, Hawley considered the idea that he could finally relax and let go of the ring, slumping into silence.

~~~

“You stole from a banshee,” Jenny said, completely incredulous.

“And lived to tell the tale.”

“Correction: you almost didn’t live,” Abbie pointed out. She was paging through a clipboard of insurance forms that she’d filled out for him, and for this small favor alone, he wanted to sweep her off her feet.

“Hey, my research suggested that banshees were bound geographically. I figured that once I’d left the county, I’d be home free. How was I supposed to know that she could take physical form and uproot herself?”

“I believe that next time, more comprehensive research is called for.” Crane remarked, his voice uncharacteristically free of loathing. “We wouldn’t want our favorite privateer to die at the hands of a screaming spirit.”

“You’re lucky that someone saw you get knocked out at the bar,” Jenny said.

“And that I was on duty when the call came in,” Abbie added. “I’ve got a mountain of paperwork now, thanks to you.”

“I’ll be sure to fill out a comment card and give you five stars,” he replied, gratified that she laughed.

“So, this ring… this Hail Mary of yours…” Crane said as Abbie and Jenny stepped out of the room.

“Yeah, a Hail Mary—“

“I know what it is now. Miss Mills explained. Where did you get it? What are its properties?”

“You mean, what were its properties, Jeeves. It’s used up now. I got it blessed by a priest who owed me a favor at the Vatican. It’s a holy light—should stop evil creatures in their tracks if it doesn’t vaporize them outright.” He turned the ring over in his hands. “Pretty powerful little thing. It could have fetched me a high price from the right buyer.”

Crane snorted in disgust. “And money rears its ugly head yet again.”

“Saved us with it, didn’t I? Stopped that thing its track, so that the Mills sisters could kick its ass.”

“What would you have done if the Mills sisters hadn’t been there? Offered it a deal? Bought it out?”

“You’ve really got it in for me. What bothers you so much, the fact that I make money off the supernatural, or that Abigail keeps talking to me?”

“Neither. You’re reckless, and your recklessness nearly got me killed. Profit should not be counted above anyone’s life.”

Hawley massaged his forehead, wishing that his head would stop aching. He felt like saying something sarcastic, but he was exhausted, and there was a small voice in his brain that was insisting that the other man had a point. “Maybe I was a little reckless. But here’s a question: why now, of all times? And why you? I’d escaped the banshee’s grasp for years, and all of a sudden, it manages to track me down and nab you at the same time? That’s suspicious.”

“I agree. This a further sign that our enemies are still working tirelessly against us.” Crane glanced remorsefully at him. “If you have been targeted because of your association with us, then… I believe that perhaps we owe you an apology of some sort.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll get in line.”

Crane looked as though he were about to snap, but then his expression softened. “Just rest, Hawley. I’m sure that Miss Mills will want to speak to you later on, but for now, you should rest. What you did… it was brave.”

Hawley barked in half-surprise, half-laughter. “Can I get that in writing?”

“Do not try my patience any further.” Crane closed the door behind him.

“Brave, huh? I guess there really is a first time for everything,” Hawley remarked to the empty room, and then lay back, trying to purge the darkness from his head again.

**Author's Note:**

> This was a gift for green_wing on DW for the 2014 Fandom_Stocking, who asked for: "Anything that includes Hawley hurt/comfort (perhaps some Ichabod h/c as well?). Especially if it involved Abby/Jenny working together to rescue the boys?"
> 
> The banshee is my own invention, although I'm surprised one hasn't appeared on the show yet!


End file.
